Confrontations: Jobs
by Oneesan Neko
Summary: It can be hard for a teenage boy to understand the many and varied jobs that go on in what is effectively an alien military base, but Spike is giving it his best shot


Confrontations: Jobs

Red Alert

Spike was familiar with Red Alert, though perhaps not in a good way. The Autobot security chief had caused him and most of the other humans on base grief quite a number of times, particularly when he was first setting up the advanced security systems for the Ark. These days he had mostly calmed down, except when there was a major event happening, such as the monthly "tours" given to various important members of Earth's governments.

It was one such series of tours, and the events surrounding it that led Spike to a new insight on the Autobot's irritable, gruff security chief.

As given by the Autobot's agreement with the governments of Earth, every two orns, for a one orn period, requests would be accepted from various important dignitaries of Earth to tour the Ark and her facilities. The areas covered in the tour were selected by Red Alert, and monitoring in those areas was greatly stepped up during that time. Spike was used to being used as a test subject while this monitoring was set up, to ensure the cameras were calibrated correctly to identify human subjects.

It was the third week of August, and the weather was hot, muggy and nasty. The Decepticons had been particularly busy this month, and many of the Autobots seeing to the daily operation of the Ark were the "walking wounded," leaving their more intact comrades to deal with the Decepticons if they came. This particular day, Spike had been riding along with Bumblebee, chatting as Bumblebee ran his patrol route.

They were two thirds of they way through their second trip, at checkpoint beta, when Red Alert's voice came over the radio.

"Bumblebee, Cliffjumper, return to Ark. Intruders detected in quadrant 3, level 4, section 3. I am locking the area down and moving to intercept. When you arrive one of you take the control room, the other come back me up. The rest of you, stick to your assigned routes unless I call."

Cliffjumper's voice followed that announcement, "Red, not again!"

Red Alert snarled back, "Shut up and report in, junior! You know the protocols, now follow them, and no whining!"

Bumblebee spoke up, "Red I'm on my way in. Maximum safe speed, I should be there in under a joor."

"Good. Cliffjumper you have your orders."

Five minutes latter, Bumblebee pulled into the Ark. Neglecting to transform, he drove all the way to the control room, pulling to a stop before Teletran-1.

"Cliffjumper's not here yet? He better get here soon, one of us has got to back Red up. If it is an intrusion, there might be multiple mechs. Spike, Why don't you take a seat over there in case I have to move quick."

Bumblebee waited for two more joors before he com'd Red Alert, "Red, is Cliffjumper there with you?"

"No. Slagger hasn't . . . There we go. Target neutralized. Bumblebee, ask Ratchet to come down here . . ." Static filled the line.

"Red? Red Alert? Damn it," He switched channels "Ratchet, Red's in quadrant 3, level 4, section 3. I just lost com contact with him, I think he's hurt. Be careful, I think there's a Decepticon down there."

"Bumblebee? Red . . . Frag, okay, I'm on my way I'll take Bluestreak with me, he's finally on his feet. Take over monitor duty, will you? If Red's down for the count we can't afford to have anything else sneak on board."

"Got it."

One joor later Bumblebee had barely gotten himself situated in the security room when Ratchet com'd back, "Bumblebee, it was Ravage. Red knocked him into stasis, then collapsed from energon loss. Bluestreak's taking Ravage to the Brig, I'm on my way to the infirmary with Red, it's pretty bad. Contact Prime, see if he's on his way back. Get back to me."

Bumblebee shook head. Turning to his human friend he said, "Spike, you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. You better contact Optimus Prime, Ratchet sounded pretty grumpy."

Bumblebee nodded, "Yeah."

Pinging on a secure line received a go for communication, "Optimus Prime sir, we've had some events here on base."

"Red Alert was injured."

"Yes sir, how . . . oh, Inferno's on your team. Ratchet wants to know your eta sir."

"Currently we are approximately one groon out. How was Red Alert injured?"

"Ravage snuck aboard. Cliffjumper was supposed to back Red up, but he never showed. Red managed to detain Ravage, but was injured in the process. Ratchet has him."

"Very good. We will be there as soon as possible. Optimus Prime out."

One groon later, Bumblebee stood before Optimus Prime's desk making his report to Optimus himself, as well as Jazz and Prowl, "At 14:50 Earth time Cliffjumper and I received a com from Red Alert requesting we return from our patrol routes to assist in detaining an intruder. At 14:55 I reached the Ark and as no one was currently there took over the control room as instructed. Cliffjumper was closer than I and should have been in the control room so I could back up Red Alert. At 15:11 Cliffjumper still had not shown so I com'd Red Alert to see if he had gone directly to the trouble area. Red Alert reported that he was not there, but that the intruder had been neutralized, and requested I com Ratchet. The communication was lost at this point. I com'd Ratchet. At 15:19 I received a com from Ratchet reporting that Red Alert had dropped offline from energon loss, and that Bluestreak was taking the intruder, Ravage to the Brig. At this point I contacted you."

"Scout Bumblebee, thank you," Prowl intoned, "We will be speaking to Cliffjumper in a few minutes. Ratchet informs me that thanks to your quick action in alerting him to Red Alert's predicament he should make a full recovery. Dismissed."

Bumblebee walked out of the office to where Spike was waiting. "Hey kiddo, come on, lets head down to the rec room."

"You're not in trouble are you?"

"Nah. My main concern at this point is what is going to happen tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?"

"Yeah. In two days is supposed to be a 'tour orn.' A lot of the work is already done, but final camera calibrations inspections and activations are supposed to start tomorrow. But with Red out of commission, I don't know how we're going to get things set up. On the other hand, it's not like we can suddenly tell all your government officials, that "Oops, sorry we have to reschedule because our chief of security is injured." Bad form and all that."

"Okay, I understand. Well, I don't know what they'll do. Guess we'll see."

* * *

The next day dawned bright and early. Spike found himself called of bed by an unfamiliar voice with a familiar request. "Spike, report to the security room. I repeat Spike, report to the security room."

Yawning, he quickly dressed and headed to the security room. He pressed his security card against the human height reader, and the door opened to reveal a very large red mech. He looked vaguely familiar, but Spike wasn't quite sure where he had seen him.

The mech turned his chair to face the door, "Spike right? I don't think we've been forma'ly introduced, but I'm Inferno."

"Hi Inferno, Bumblebee was saying something yesterday about you being with Optimus Prime, but other than that I haven't heard your name."

"Yeah, well, I'm Red's bondmate, and I'll be takin' over security fo' the time bein'. Now, accordin' to Red you've had some experience with recalibratin' the cameras fo' the human tours, so I was hopin' you could help me get thin's ready."

"Alright."

Over the next two days, as Spike had a great many conversations with Inferno. The mech had first sworn him to secrecy, saying that while it wasn't anything that would suprise the other Autobots, Red would prefer the humans not know.

So he learned that Red Alert was gruff, not our of any desire to hurt others, but because he wasn't sure how to act, and as long as he was terse and slightly mean about what he said, others were more likely to to as he said. This was important, because he was entrusted with the security of the entire Ark and her environs, a lot of work for one person.

He learned that no, it wasn't his imagination that Red seemed to always be on duty, even his bondmate was unlikely to see him outside of the security office more often than once every third shift. When he asked how often that was, he learned that the Ark had a three shift rotation, wherein each bot worked for two days and was off for four. Red Alert, not trusting other mechs to do his job right, tended to work two shifts, four days, before he was forced out of his office by the need to refuel and recharge.

He learned that Red Alert would stick by his friends, but that he didn't make friends easy. Inferno told him that the fact that Red Alert had recommended Spike to help him with the final camera calibrations was a huge show of trust in Spike on his part.

He learned that the mess hall jokes were true in a way, Red Alert could be slightly paranoid, but that in Inferno's opinion that was what made him so good at his job.

Two days later, as he and his dad led government officials on tours of the Ark, Spike found himself looking discretely at the cameras throughout the ark and smiling to himself. The Ark had a protector, a guardian angel, with an angel of his own, both cloaked in wings of flame.


End file.
